I'm Steve, creator of this site. While pursuing a masters degree at San Francisco State University, I discovered the potential of the Internet in Dr. John Hollenbeck's "Web Authoring I" course. I was hooked after that class, and I took as many Web-related courses as I could manage during that time. Now, as I work as an Instructional Designer/Web design freelancer, I continue to learn all I can about the technology: Cascading Style Sheets, Forms/CGIs and JavaScripts have been my latest efforts. Working with databases, including PHP and MySQL, will be my next project.

Anyway, I'm back in Austin, Texas after living in the Bay Area until March 2001. Growing up around the country and world has given me an appreciation for travel, foreign cultures, geography, maps--that sort of thing. And I've always tried to incorporate that stuff into my working life. I majored in Cultural Geography/International Relations as an undergrad, and then went to work for several years as an urban planner on the US/Mexico border, as well as in the Kingdom of Swaziland. Returning from Africa, I found employment as a travel guide editor, which allowed me to continue to experience some pretty wild places, including Cuba, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Mali and Senegal.

After some time doing everything from acting as a movie extra to importing Cuban cigars, I landed in Sausalito, California, to work for a charter sailing company. But that didn't last long: Soon after I began, a storm hit, and the boat on which the office was located went to the bottom of Davy Jones' Locker. I then wound up teaching at Raoul Wallenberg High School in San Francisco. That was indeed a challenge, as I had never been in front of a classroom before, and had never taken a single education course! But I survived, most of my students survived, and I ended up happily teaching at that school for the next year before leaving for Austin.

While I was teaching, I was also employed as an air courier for the high tech industry, for companies such as Intel, PMC Sierra and Ericsson. About twice a month, after teaching all week, I would fly out of SFO carrying a mysterious looking box under my arm. Depending on my "orders," I'd head for places such as Singapore, Penang, Tel Aviv, Vancouver, Montreal, Zurich, Gothenburg, Paris, London, etc, etc. En route, I'd correct student homework, plan lessons and occasionally build Web sites on a laptop. On arrival, I'd spend several hours under interrogation by suspicious customs officials (Now tell us again, Mistah Hall: Vat, exactlee, iz een de box?), and usually have a day or two to wander around wherever I was in the world, before flying back and telling my students what I did over the weekend...

In my free time, when I'm not in school--either as teacher or student--or building Web sites, I'm running, biking, rockclimbing, kayaking or swimming around Austin. Unfortunately, I can't continue to learn to surf at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, but that's ok: The water was murky and freezing, the weather was gloomy, and great whites loved the place. The warm surf of the Texas Gulf Coast is a welcome change.

Well, that's about it!
Steve